FDA: Pardon Me, But Your Bakery Warehouse Is Full Of "Rodent Excreta Pellets"

We’d never stopped to think about it before, but we were not surprised to learn that our government had a polite term for rodent feces. It’s “rodent excreta pellet,” and apparently a warehouse belonging to Capitol Cake, a Baltimore bakery specializing in fruitcake and pound cake, is full of them.

From the WSJ Health Blog:

The FDA’s recently released letter to Capitol Cake President John Kunkel said agency inspectors found ample evidence of a lack of pest control, including:
[L]ive rodents observed along side a rodent trap, running under pallets containing finished food products and collapsed boxes used by your firm, and a live rodent that you brushed off of your shoulder onto the floor, and then kicked under a pallet holding finished food products

Some other signs of trouble were a bird flying around inside the warehouse, dead rodents on a rack with finished baked goods and “rodent excreta pellets” (REPs to FDA) that seemed to be all over the place.

We called Kunkel at Capitol Cake, and he told us the FDA letter made the situation sound worse than it was. “A mouse did run out over my foot. He didn’t jump off my shoulder,” he said. As for the bird, it “flew in and then out in five minutes,” he said. That wouldn’t usually happen, but “the front garage was open only because we were doing the cleaning” to remedy the rodent situation.

You know, we’re going to go ahead and say that we don’t care whether the mouse was the dude’s shoulder or his foot. Ya know? Anyway, if you enjoy gross things, you can read the FDA’s letter here.